100% 'Natural' Foods
 

So, my husband and I are trying to get away from processed food, and start eating things that are all natural. This is turning out to be harder then you might thing for some items. Fruits are obvious, they are fruit and look like fruit right? What about the things that are suppose to be 100% fruit made? I mean things like Orange Juice such as Simply Orange or the like, or even Jelly that's suppose to be all natural. How are these things made?

Well, my husband found some interesting information. There is one sure fire way to find out if something truly is all natural or not. Oranges that are from different parts of the world do not taste the same. However, juice that is made from oranges from different parts of the world -do- taste the same. Unless you happen to have a truly organic story near you that juices oranges. That may be different. What I'm talking about, though, pertains namely to Simply Orange and the like.

I understand that the thousands of gallons of juice these companies have to make could not be made the way that we might do so in our own kitchen. This article explains how it's done though.

If you don't want to read the article, then I will give you the short version. Basically, these companies de-oxygenate the oranges and store them for years at a time. Being as the oxygen has been removed they can hold for longer. Unfortunately this means that the oranges are left flavorless. So the companies replace the flavor with flavor packets, kinda like the flavor packets we put in water. These packets do not have to be listed separately on the container because they are orange 'by-products', even though they are heavily chemically manipulated before being added back into the flavorless, oxygen deprived orange juice.

Yay for label laws that leave these companies with the freedom to lie to us by using 'by-products'. I don't know if this is true for any other country in the world. I'm in the U.S.A myself, so things may be done very differently here. This article has made me think a lot about the different juices and 'natural' foods that we eat and what these food companies might be hiding from us.

So, what do you think of this? How do you feel about this? I don't know about any of you, but I'm disgusted. My husband and I will be buying a juicer and making our own from now on. I would like to know what is in the food I eat, after all.

To be honest that's amazing what they do to those oranges, and disgusting. I mean I wouldn't want my orange juiced to come from oranges that were picked years ago! I don't care if they were sucked out of oxygen so they wouldn't go bad, it's still really gross. it makes me now wonder how all the other juices are made as well.

Also here's a little comment as well about natural foods that i learned about in school, though I really do wish I had the article for it. the truth is the apples we see at the grocery store and such aren't always preservative free. If you think about it their aren't a lot of orchids around and fruits often because rotten after a few weeks. So for big companies to pick, ship, bag, ship, and get to your grocery store's they aren't always preservative free. They often spray these fruits with different chemicals so they resist going rotten by blocking out some air.

The only way to get 100% organic it seems is if you go to a organic store or you grow it yourself it seems.

I agree with that entirely, and I suppose it makes sense that there are fruits with preservatives in them. What my husband and I want to do is grow our own garden and hunt for the meat we want. It's the only way to be certain that our food doesn't have all that horrible stuff in it.

There's not really any industry standard for labeling things as "all-natural" or "natural" foodstuffs in the US. That's why there's a lawsuit against Tropicana and several other food manufacturers for various reasons.

Even certified organic products can be considered not "all-natural" simply by the amount of processing required to make the product.

My suggestion is just to shop the perimiter of your grocery store. Don't buy anything off of any of the inner aisles except out of the baking/spices/sugar aisle (since some of those things obviously would not be practical to make yourself... who is gonna grind their own flour these days? :lol:). It's a lot more work to prepare food that way but it'll keep you out of frozen and processed foods, which is where most of the nutrition is lost (and where less-than-good-for-you additives are gained).

Hey! I'm working on getting things to grind my own flour! :P I'm tearing up my yard as soon as my foot's better to make a "field" area for grains next year. Then again, I'm kinda weird so yeah. :P

I try to stay away from anything that's not natural but it is hard unless you pretty much make everything yourself. Even then it's not guaranteed to be "natural". As Keyori said, the outside of the supermarkets is pretty much where all the "natural" foods are. That's mainly where I shop. I grow a lot of my own foods too and I use no pesticides or anything. This year I plan on relearning how to can things too for over the winter.

Before I stopped eating meat I never realized how gross food really is. Now I look at packaging and try to buy things that are "natural" and vegetarian. I think that it's sad that the government doesn't make companies tell consumers what they do to the foods too. Personally, I think they should at least make companies post what they use online at the very least so that people can better choose products that are healthier.

I don't care at all about the orange juice thing. It was fine before you knew, why should it be any different now?

It isn't hurting people apparently because they've been doing this for years.

And if you want fresh orange juice, do it yourself. Get some oranges and see how little juice you get from each orange.

The OP about orange juice reminds me of a Cracked article I read about food that had that in there.
The 6 Most Horrifying Lies The Food Industry is Feeding You | Cracked.com

Has it made me stop buying and consuming OJ made in that manner? No.
Has it made me start looking at my OJ a little funny and saying "zombie" under my breath? Yes.

Here's another, newer, article about food.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19896_the-6-creepiest-lies-food-industry-feeding-you.html

Some of them I already knew about, some were a little surprising.
Some of it, I'm sure can be taken with a grain of salt because it is Cracked; so if you're really concerned, you'd do the research yourself (you in general~). I'm pretty unconcerned.

"Natural flavor" is pretty deceiving. In a way, it's kind of obvious when you think of "natural", but if you're a vegetarian or vegan, it can be pretty shocking to discover that this includes animal products like Castoreum.

To me, it's one thing to want to eat healthier, consuming the proper and moderate amounts of each food group, but after a certain point, it's too much effort (again, for me). Do I buy some things organic? Sure. But I don't go out of my way to do it. And I'm perfectly fine buying non-organic. I'm in the process of growing a small (and frankly, laughable) garden, but I am by no means a farmer nor do I plan to be. I want my time to be spent not worrying about "does this have chemicals on/in it." What I'm finding ironic is that we grew to the society we are because we didn't have to worry about food, because we got that basic need taken care of; so we could do other things. And now it's kind of going back. :lol:

Ikuto: The animal products in "natural flavors" is why I avoid stuff that says that on the packaging. I have no idea what that means so I don't want to eat it.

Yeah, I figure if they can't bother to put on the packaging what it is then I can't be bothered to buy their product.

It actually was not fine before I knew, because what they were telling me was a lie. I don't care if it 'hurts' people or not, it's the fact that our government is letting this companies lie to us again and again about what is actually in our foods.

Now, I did not post this, but my husband and I are going to be making our own juices. I'm not an idiot, I know why they do it this way. I know that fruits yield little juice, and that's why having juice will become a rare treat for us.

Just because they have a reason for what they do doesn't make it right, and that doesn't make it healthy either. As far as if it has caused any health problems, well I would have to do research to see if that's the case. I think I will later, but for now I'll let that alone.

Ikuto Akihiko Hasegawa:
Thank you for the articles, I'll look into it and do some research of my own. I was much like you are, unconcerned with it until recently. My view on things kinda changed as more and more information was coming to light about the 'generally considered safe' things they were putting in the foods. This includes some types of bugs in foofy coffee drinks to add color (yes bugs), pink slime in ground beef (which we eat -far- to much of), and now flavor packets that are made by perfume companies in our orange juice. None of this is okay. They need to tell us what is in our foods and stop lying. I'm just sick of being lied to. I wouldn't care if they wrote it on the packaging, because then I would know what foods to avoid.

It's just my opinion though, and I know others may differ. We just want to consider our son, set a good example, and ensure that what we do feed him is what it claims to be.

Mystic: I like the way you think. <3

Edit:
This article has some things I already knew about as well, but it has things that I need to research. I knew about all the horrible things they do to chickens though.

I would try to purchase organic foods but sometimes they are too expensive. I feel like they are a luxury in some way.

I actually spend less on organic foods than I did when I bought "junk" foods. They're not more expensive if you buy them from smaller markets. BIg stores always jack prices up on everything though.

So you'd rather there be a shortage of orange juice so it can be at a high price that almost no one can afford? Okay then, either way, you won't be drinking it so it doesn't matter for you.

And unless it says FRESH SQUEEZED orange juice on it, they weren't lying. It is still liquid AKA juice from an orange. They just took the flavoring away and added their own. Which is fine by me long as the nutritional values on the jug are right. I don't see the problem because it's either do this so they can make a lot and cheaply or people won't be able to buy it. And I'd rather have reflavored orange juice instead of never tasting it again. Hell, the price of a gal. of milk makes me rethink my love of milk.

And are you going to get your own cows and milk them? You know, since you hate this orange juice thing, you must hate the hormones they put in cows. And the pus in milk that doesn't matter since germs are killed during pasturization.

I love that you are completely missing the point of my post. I don't care if they do it or not, I care that they are lying by claiming this is all natural juice when it, in point of fact, is not. What I want is to be able to make an informed decision because the information is accurate. They can sell what the hell every they want, but they need to be honest. Hell, cigerrets kill you, I don't care that they are selling them because I know they are bad and so I made an informed decision to keep those death sticks out of my mouth and house.

And to answer your last question my husband and I are working towards growing and raising as much as we can. Some things are impractical for the time being. I do hate what they do to the cows and chickens and what have you though, I honestly don't understand how you don't see a problem with this. It's your life you, eat what you will and I hope that nothing bad comes of it for you.

Edit: Further more I would like to add that when the information about the pink slime came out McDonalds pulled it from their products. You'll notice that their prices did not double or increase drastically. Knowing what's in a product does not mean that it will cause a shortage or increase prices. A lot of what these companies do are for no other reason then to give them larger profit margins at the cost of our health.

I think it's funny that people automatically jump on McDonalds for "pink slime" when they no longer use it yet grocers still sell meat containing "fillers" or "pink slime". That's one more reason meat grosses me out. Too many hormones and nasty stuff in it. That's beside the point though. It's hard to raise animals in mass quantities without them getting sick which is why antibiotics are used. I hate the idea of mass raising animals for that reason.

You want to complain that I didn't get the point of your post when you skipped over part of mine but whatever.

One: IT IS ALL NATURAL JUICE! It is juice from an orange. The oxygen it gone. That doesn't make it not be juice anymore. They're not lying about anything.

Why I don't see a problem? Because I need food in my price range. Hormones make cows produce more milk so it can be cheaper and more accessable. Hormones are used on chicken so the chickens grow bigger quicker so there is more of it which by basic economics says prices will be cheaper. I can't afford organic.

I never said knowing what was in a product change prices. Thank you for putting words in my damn mouth. Less supply (AKA making orange juice the old fashioned way) will though. And that means people would have to go with the various nutrients that are in oranges. Like Vitamin C. Some people, like me, have deficiencies that your little problems, if enough people complained to change things, would probably be on a lot more pills due to not being able to AFFORD the good shit which would be all that's there.

Why do I not care? Because I can't afford anything else. So it's either the things you have problems with or nothing for me. And I'd rather have hormone pumped chicken and cows...and deoxygenated orange juice instead of nothing.

And McDonald's chicken nuggets are still that pink slime pretty much. It is bits of breast meat. What did people think they did? Use a fucking cookie cutter on a breast? I think not.

I read your entire post the first time. I thought that the all natural part was covered in the first post with the fact that the flavor packets they place in the juice is heavily chemically altered. I suppose that was glossed over though. Also, the way your post came across was just what I said, that it would increase price by lowering the surplus. That was the same issue with the beef. Just because you make it a more natural way, doesn't mean it -will- increase prices, though it can.

I will say AGAIN that I don't care how they make it, but I want them to TELL me. They could put cows blood in it for all I care as long as it's on the label so that I can make and INFORMED DECISION. That's all I'm asking. Is that so wrong? In your arguments that seems to be a problem. I'm sorry that you have a deficiency, my point isn't to change what they are doing. I just want them to tell us the truth.

I'm aware of how chicken nuggets are made, I simply used them as an example for the situation with their beef. I refuse to feed my son chicken nuggets anyway, because they are horrendously made and disgusting. Hell, my son is practically a vegetarian. He very rarely eats meat, choosing instead to eat grains, fruits, and vegetables. He may change as he grows, but I think I prefer he stay this way, eating meat only very rarely since we, as a people, eat more meat then we should.

Now, if you just come back with the same arguments that show you are clearly over looking the fact that I've repeatedly said that I don't care how they make it so long as they tell us, then I will not respond. You certainly have a right to your opinion and to eat what you want, but I have a right to the same thing.

Edit:
Also, this commercial says there is no freezing or flavoring. There is, however, so it's a blatant lie.

I hate to inform you that chemicals are technically natural if they can be found in nature or their components are found in nature. So they specific company in your video? They're lying about the flavoring possibly, but what does that specific company use for flavoring? It could be mixing de-oxygenated orange juice with normal orange juice. Or it could be orange extract. Or random ass shit.

Also, my point was that if they didn't do it, the price of orange juice would be outrageous. Same goes for chicken and cows and the hormone thing. I'm price sensitive because I can't find a job (which is a market segment that someone has to appeal to). So cheap matters more. Or cheaper.

Informed decision? It's called the internet. You became informed and you're making a decision. The information is out there. Companies do not have to do anything, have no obligation to, but follow the law. AKA Consumer/buyer beware. It is up to the consumer to make sure they really want to buy this item, whatever it may be. Some may go beyond that...others may not. And there's a thin line between what's right and wrong in advertising.

And your son might end up with one of the same deficiencies I have so watch out for that. One of my deficiencies is caused by not eating enough meat. It causes signs of psychosis, depression, mania. It also, prolonged, can cause nerve damage...and who knows what else since he's still a child. Just saying, watch for it. Because something like that would be just horrible for a kid.

I'm fully aware that some chemicals are derived naturally. I don't have a problem with those. The issue is that they wont come out and tell us what they are using. I used the video above because that was the specific juice I was getting. It is -not- mixing the two together. They are using flavoring packets that are made by perfume companies. Here's a quote from the article I linked.

"When the juice is stripped of oxygen it is also stripped of flavor providing chemicals. Juice companies therefore hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that formulate perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh. Flavor packs aren’t listed as an ingredient on the label because technically they are derived from orange essence and oil. Yet those in the industry will tell you that the flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized orange juice, resemble nothing found in nature. The packs added to juice earmarked for the North American market tend to contain high amounts of ethyl butyrate, a chemical in the fragrance of fresh squeezed orange juice that, juice companies have discovered, Americans favor. Mexicans and Brazilians have a different palate. Flavor packs fabricated for juice geared to these markets therefore highlight different chemicals, the decanals say, or terpene compounds such as valencine."

Hmm, yummy perfume. Just what I wanna drink.

As far as the informed decision, why don't I have the right to look at a label and know that what they place on their is the truth? Why should I have to spend my free time searching for articles that may or may not exist that tell us how this stuff is made? This is something that has come out recently, very few people knew of the process before those articles started coming out. Not so easy to make an informed decision without information.

"Also, my point was that if they didn't do it, the price of orange juice would be outrageous."
Once again, I'm not saying that they have to change what they are doing. My parents are actually poor, so I grew up poor and only able to get frozen orange juice that my dad had to mix up. I rarely drank it because I couldn't stand the taste. So I know where you are coming from, but Simply Orange is almost 5 USD a bottle around here. That's really steep for them to made it cheaply.

I am aware that they only have to follow what the law says, but I think that the laws on what can be considered all natural need to be changed. Of course, all that being said orange juice isn't that good for you to begin with. It's better to just eat an orange then drink the juice. It's just nice to have it as an alternate option to water or milk....which I hate that there is so much sugar in fat free milk.

I'm aware that it's something to be on the lookout for as far as what my son does and does not eat. We do what we can, get him to eat meat when we can. There's little more we can do until he's older. He's only 3 and, whereas he's a very clever boy, there are still some things that are more then a little difficult to make him understand. Believe me, my husband and I are very concerned because he's 3 and only weighs 35 lbs, he's still wearing 2t stuff for the most part, 3t tends to be a little on the big side. I anticipate that he'll be mostly in 3t by the time he's 4 and so on. We are doing everything we can and making certain that he gets the protein to help him grow as often as we can.

Cats Eye, I think your a little heavy on the defensive here. Althilea has the right to live however she wishes, and raises her family in whatever way she wishes, that is not life threatening.

Me, I'm an avid meat eater. I really don't care what they put in my food. But I do hate being lied to. I want the food companies to straight out tell me what is in what, don't cover it up with pretty words and fancy scientific lingo. Straight up answers!

And that is the point I've been trying to make right there Codette. I just don't want them to lie to me. I want them to tell me what's in it so that I don't have to spend my free time doing loads of research for these answers.

exactly. Like that new water flavour... MiO! They say its all great and everything, but if you actually look at the chemical compounds in it... yeesh, I'd rather drink Kool-aid.

I know what you mean. >< My husband and I just add some lemon juice or mint to ice cubes and use that to flavor our water. It's really nice. I prefer the mint myself.